When my patients had a really good experience in my office or my nursing home, they commonly asked what they could do to say thank you.
I told them to write a letter to the editor—and mention the people they were thankful for by name.
That way everyone in our little town could see it. And the helpful person in question could swell with pride.
And it worked. Every. Single. Time.
But today healthcare is being delivered by organizations, not people.
Indeed, these organizations want you to see them as your “doctor,” not any specific person in a white coat with a degree.
And organizations have no friends, only interests, brand recognition, and their reputation with their payers—primarily the government.
Like virtually everything it touches, the government, through the act of paying for hospice services, has perverted its work product.
The real work product of Hospice is comfort to the dying. And if you or someone you love is in that position, Hospice will be a gift from God.
But that’s Hospice with a capital H.
The work product of hospice companies, the ones that have to keep the lights on and make a profit to survive, has nothing to do with comfort to the dying.
Their work product is a good score on the government’s patient satisfaction survey, filled out by the “responsible party” after the patient has passed away. And that’s because it’s that government survey score that determines how much money the hospice will make.
Giving great care is nice—but it doesn’t matter if the satisfaction survey score is poor.
People are irrational. And the death of a loved one makes them doubly so.
That’s why you see the responsible parties of patients who got great hospice care giving terrible scores—and why hospices are increasingly resorting to persuasion tactics to get good ones.
Persuasion tactics you’d be familiar with if you ever bought a car.
I tell you this because if you use hospice, you’re going to see these tactics in action.
It’s not quite as bad as: “If there’s anything that’s keeping you from giving us five stars, please call me first so I can make it right.” But it’s heading in that direction.
So, if you use a hospice and are grateful for their service, the best reward isn’t a thank you note or a bouquet of flowers.
It’s unstinting praise on the satisfaction survey that the government sends out.
It’s not meant to be a quality survey, a “what can we be doing better” tool.
It’s meant to figure out how much the hospice is going to make for the services they provide.
Even a single suggestion for improvement can dramatically drop your hospice’s score. Even the slightest negativity hurts.
So, if you’re happy, don’t put anything, ANYTHING negative on the survey.
Heap praise.
Of course, if you’re unhappy, now you know what you can do as well.